COST OF ARMY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 152, 28 June 1940, Page 9

COST OF ARMY.

HUGE SUM THIS YEAR.

AIR FORCE EXPANSION.

WAR ACCOUNT £37,500,000. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The difficulty of estimating the Dominion's war expenditure was commented upon by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, in the House of Representatives la«t night. He said that the estimate of £33,000,000 of three months ago as requirements for the financial year liad now been raised to £37,500,000. This figure was made up as follows:—

Arm^ —New Zealand Expeditionary Force, overseas £18,000,000, in New Zealand £7,000,000; home defence, £5,000,000.

Navy— £ 1,500,000. Air Force—Overseas £1,750,000, in New Zealand £4,250,000.

Mr. Nash reminded the House of the arrangement made for the cost of New Zealand's forces overseas to be financed by the United Kingdom on a loan basis, and said that under it the Dominion would be piling up dead-weight overseas debt that would be a heavy burden for many years after the war. They liad, therefore, an incentive to strain every nerve to meet from New Zealand the cost of maintaining the forces overseas as such costs accrued. The costs within New Zealand might be met by taxation or by borrowing. Even if it was necessary to finance by local borrowing. it was a debt they owed to themselves and not a dead-weight burden on the Dominion after the War.

"Any part of our overseas war costs we do pay from our own resources means providing it out of the proceeds of our exports," added Air. Nash. "In other words, we must reduce our imports to do it. The necessary sacrifice must be made by consuming less goods. By doing so we not only help ourselves, but directly assist tlie hard-pressed Mother Country. Every million pounds worth of goods needed bv our troops overseas and not found through curtailing our consumption of goods liere in New Zealand can be provided only by that much additional curtailment by thepeople of the United Kingdom. It must come out of our production or out of theirs, and I feel sure our people will want to avoid increasing the already enormous war burden being carried by the people of the United Kingdom. "Including £1,750,000 on account of the Empire training scheme, the total overseas costs of our forces have been tentatively estimated at £19.750,000. and expenditure in New Zealand at £17.750,000. We must find the latter as and when required, and then organise a Dominion-wide sustained economy drive with a view to meeting out of our overseas funds as much as possible of the amount which otherwise would come as a loan from the United Kingdom." The War Expenses Account is outside the Budget.